Thursday, September 15, 2011

One More Reason To Like The Beatles

Still recovering from some Toronto Film Festival fun and getting back to work but thought it worthy to post this little cultural tidbit. The first thing is that it's weird that a show contract and rider are being auctioned to a private bidder. It's truly fetishism of the highest order. Though I've stopped throwing out old socks and underwear on the unlikely chance that I'll ever be famous but a little short of cash ("Opening bids on Mr. Whitney's 2008 Calvin Klein boxer brief's with accompanying holes and stretched waist elastic will begin at $14,235). Semi-religious object obsessions aside, the rider from the Beatle's 1965 concert in Daly, California is nonetheless interesting for the fact that they have as a line item that they will not be expected to play any segregated concerts, still relatively common at the time. For those that think John Lennon just discovered progressive politics in 1970, this demonstrates that the four working class lads from Liverpool - a city with strong left and union traditions - were no johnny-come-latelies to being decent guys, even where it might have damaged their careers.